PR Crisis Response Skill

In a crisis, silence reads as guilt and a clumsy statement makes it worse. The first hour decides the narrative. This skill produces a coordinated response — what you say, to whom, on which channel, and in what order — anchored in one consistent message so the company speaks with a single voice while the facts are still moving.

Working from a brief

You'll often get the situation in a sentence ("a customer's data was exposed and it's trending"). Produce the full plan anyway — infer the likely stakeholders, channels, and questions, label assumptions, and clearly flag where facts must be confirmed before publishing. Never stall for complete information; a crisis plan with labelled unknowns beats no plan. Mark anything legally sensitive for review.

Required Inputs

Ask for these only if they aren't already provided (else infer and label):

• What happened — the incident, when, who's affected, and what's confirmed vs. still unknown.
• Severity & exposure — how serious, who knows, and where it's spreading (press, social, regulators).
• Organisation — what you do, who your audiences are, and your voice.
• Constraints — legal/regulatory limits, what you can't say yet, and who must approve.

Output Format

Crisis Response Plan: [situation]

1. Situation assessment — the facts (confirmed / unconfirmed / unknown), severity, and the likely trajectory.

2. Guiding principles — be fast, honest, human, and consistent; lead with the people affected, not the company.

3. Stakeholder map — who needs to hear from you, in priority order, and what each one needs:

Audience	What they care about	Channel	Priority
Affected customers	am I harmed, what now	direct email / in-app	1
Employees	what do I tell people	internal note	1